Blue-faced encounter

Chelski may be too far off to retain the title but that won't stop them in spoiling the party :(

Man Utd's bad run at Stamford Bridge continues. This fixture is a rather strange one considering that the Blues are virtually out of the title race this season. But they posed the greatest clog in United's march to the title and they have proven so. Fergie had opted to maintain the same away team that smashed Wigan 4-0 for this match and Rooney seemed to be starting a run-up of good performance by putting in a ballistic shot from outside the penalty box to put United 1-0 up in the first half. Everything looked to be in order when half-time approached with consistent pressure being applied to the Chelsea goal and Fernando ain't looking like scoring at all. And in the second half, everything just fell apart. United paid the price for sitting back even by a little. Chelski's very own energy ball David Luiz popped in an equaliser. By the time Zhirkov and Drogba came out, United's attack were almost faded away. Hernandez was outmuscled totally by Terry and Berbatov as a replacement did little to change that. Smalling, who have been performing well in all of the matches that he had started, ran out of credits in the 2nd half and commits a grave mistake by conceding a penalty. Zhirkov capitalised on his inexperience by charging at Smalling's sticking out leg and falling flat on the ground afterthat. Lampard finished the penalty and Chelsea completed a 2-1 comeback. To add a humiliating sucker punch to United, Vidic was sent off in the dying minutes, leaving United in a little center back crisis.

In any case, the away support was fantastic with their "Chelsea Rent-Boy" chants. The few thousand minority were louder than the majority Stamford Bridge fellas who were just sitting there warming the seats. Obviously many of them won't forget Fernando's association with the Scousers, so all the anti-Liverpool chants were rained on him too. Of course, the two jokers on the field are Wayne, who elbowed a Wigan player during the weekend and got away with it and Cashley Cole who shot a poor boy with his air rifle and he got away scot free too..lol.

Honestly, United didn't play too bad in this match. It could have gone either way. They had several chances which could have worked but didn't have the fire in the belly to finish it up. I can spot 2 chances where Rooney had given a diagonal pass across the goalmouth and a incoming charging player could have easily given in a tap in into an open goal. But on both occassions, the charging players did not go all out to chase the ball. Dissapointing result but the week of reckoning is not over yet. There's still Anfield coming up and the Scousers, no doubt are having some sort of erratic form under the Dalglish, could pose a similar threat. The golden question is, who's gonna be filling in the center back with Ferdinand, Vidic and potentially Evans out of the picture. Smalling will definitely have to play, and this leaves either John O Shea or Brown who are capable to take over. In any case, Andy Carroll will look forward in exploiting that soft center.

The results leaves Arsenal 4 points away with a game in hand, which potentially means a point gap in the end. And United, other than going to Anfield, still have to visit the Emirates. However, injury rocked Arsenal can also prove to be shaky where Fabregas, Van Persie and Walcott out and it remains to be seen how they will perform in their remaining sessions. The title which seemed to look like Chelsea's at first, and then to United's later, is now up for grabs again.